Team India is one of the biggest names when it comes to cricket, but their favourite format of the game has to be ODI Cricket.
India and many of their players boast some of the records in the 50-over format of the game. They have played the most number of ODI games in cricket history since the start of their ODI journey way back in 1974.
No other team has played over 1000 ODIs, and as expected, they have some elite players in this format who hold many records.
One such in their arsenal is the player with the most number of 100s in the format. And here in this article, we will list down the top 10 players who have scored the most centuries for India as far as ODIs are concerned.
Also Read: The Cricketing Teams with Most ODI Centuries
Most Centuries for India in ODI Cricket
| Player | Innings | 100s | Highest Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virat Kohli | 283 | 50 | 183 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 452 | 49 | 200* |
| Rohit Sharma | 257 | 31 | 264 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 297 | 22 | 183 |
| Shikhar Dhawan | 164 | 17 | 143 |
| Virender Sehwag | 235 | 15 | 219 |
| Yuvraj Singh | 275 | 14 | 150 |
| Rahul Dravid | 314 | 12 | 153 |
| Gautam Gambhir | 143 | 11 | 150* |
| MS Dhoni | 294 | 9 | 183* |
Key insights from the above stats
50: Virat Kohli has the most number of centuries in ODI cricket and he moved past the record of Sachin Tendulkar, who has 49 ODI centuries
49: The ODI centuries by the former Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar, and this is the second-most any batsman across the world in ODI cricket. Tendulkar has also played the most number of innings in ODIs (452) and the most number of half-centuries (96) to date.
With not many ODIs played these days in international cricket, not many have a chance to get close to his tally, especially the half-centuries and total number of games mark.
18426: Runs accumulated by the legendary Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar in his illustrious ODI career at a stunning average of 44.83 in 452 innings. There is a high chance that these runs will never be surpassed by any batter in the years to come.
26: Virat Kohli has also hit the most number of ODI centuries while chasing. The former Indian skipper has smashed a record 26 centuries while pursuing a target in ODIs at an incredible average of 64.31 in 146 innings.
This is one of the reasons why Virat is being called the chase master and is comfortably leading the pack, with Sachin Tendulkar coming in second with 17 hundreds and Rohit Sharma occupying third with 14 tons.
5: The number of centuries hit by the current Indian skipper Rohit Sharma in a single world cup.
The opening batter, regarded as one of the finest ever to play ODIs, smashed a record number of 5 centuries in the 2019 ICC World Cup, where he also emerged as the highest run-getter with 648 runs. He coincidentally went past the tally of 4 centuries hit by Kumar Sangakkara in the preceding World Cup in 2015.
Rohit himself has 30 ODI centuries to his credit in 238 innings and sits pretty at the third position in the all-time ODI century makers list for India.
9:: Number of centuries hit by the former Indian World Cup winning skipper, MS Dhoni, in ODIs for India. He has hit 10 centuries in ODIs, but one of them is discredited as it came while playing for the Asia XI in 2007.
This is also the most centuries hit by an Indian wicketkeeper-batsman in ODI cricket, with the next best by Rahul Dravid (4) when he kept wickets for a brief period of time, and no other Indian keeper has hit more than 1 ODI century.
22: The number of centuries hit by the former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly in his ODI career, and out of these 22, 16 of them came in a span of 4 years between 1997 and 2000, where he hit more than 1300 runs/calendar year.
9: The most number of ODI centuries hit by any player in a calendar year. And it was done by none other than Sachin Tendulkar who achieved this incredible feat in the year 1998. Sourav Ganguly and Rohit Sharma come joint third in the list, having hit 7 centuries each in 2000 and 2019, respectively.
5: The number of Indian opening batters who have smashed a double century in ODIs, the most by any team in history.
While we have Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, and Rohit Sharma on this list, the young batters Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan, who have also bludgeoned a double century each in ODIs as openers, are yet to make this list.
14: The number of centuries hit by the World Cup winning all-rounder Yuvraj Singh for India. He has the most centuries by an Indian player while playing in the middle-order and is often regarded as one of the best Indian players in that position.
Rahul Dravid, who also occupied the coveted middle-order slots for India in his long career, also accumulated 12 centuries in his career.
Gautam Gambhir (11), Shikhar Dhawan (17), and Virender Sehwag (15), all of whom were legendary openers for India in the ODI format, have over 10 ODI centuries under their belt. All of them contributed to India’s success in the major ICC events, including the ICC ODI World Cup in 2011 and the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 as well as 2013.
Read Next: India’s Best ODI XI of All Time
